Tornado

Does the existence of a patent application for a so-called "hurricane and tornado control device" prove Hurricane Helene and other natural disasters are created artificially, as posts on social media suggest? No, that's not true: The patent application in question was abandoned as of May 8, 2003. Also, it proposed a strategy for diverting storms by projecting sound waves --…

Does a viral video of "National Guard troops" prove that New York is about to declare martial law? No, that's not true: The particular unit captured on camera has been patrolling transportation hubs in New York City since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. According to the spokesperson for the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs,…

Do two reels posted to Facebook authentically show clips of tornadoes that occurred in Dubai and Canada? No, that's not true: Experts told Lead Stories that the twisters shown in the clips were fake and 100 percent AI-generated content. There are prominent elements in the videos that indicate manipulation and editing have been used to create them. One claim originated…

Is a video authentically showing a "tornado storm" in Chicago on July 16, 2024? No, that's not true: The tornados in this video appear fake and a college animation professor told Lead Stories that "portions of the video montage have AI or VFX elements added." Multiple credible media organizations reported tornado-like storms in Chicago on July 15, 2024 -- not…

Does a video compilation of clips showing extreme weather include authentic footage of Hurricane Beryl striking Cancun, Mexico, on July 5, 2024? No, there's no evidence that's true: At least two of the clips were available online before the hurricane formed. This means they could not possibly depict Hurricane Beryl. The claim appeared in a post on Facebook Reels on…

Does a video montage of clips contain authentic footage of Hurricane Beryl striking Texas on July 7, 2024? No, that's not true: Lead Stories connected nine of the clips to storms in Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Florida and Canada, but not Texas. There's no evidence linking the collection of 13 short clips to the Category 1 hurricane that made landfall in…

Does a video show authentic footage of a tornado hitting a Florida beach, or Miami, on July 7, 2024? No, that's not true: National Weather Service records did not document any such extreme weather in the entire state of Florida on July 7, 2024. The footage is a combination of digitally created clips and recycled clips from unrelated true events.…

Does a video compilation show Hurricane Beryl in Jamaica on July 3, 2024? No, that's not true: The compilation consists of older, unrelated video clips from intense weather events in other places. None of the footage was shot in Jamaica. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on July 3, 2024. It was captioned: Hurricane Beryl Caribbean…

Did U.S. Marines forcibly block the Federal Emergency Management Agency from providing tornado relief in Omaha, Nebraska, in April 2024? No, that's not true: A Pentagon duty officer told Lead Stories that this claim is false. It originally showed up in an article on a website that regularly publishes fabricated content. The claim appeared in an article published by Real…

Does a video circulating on social media show clips of the rainstorms that caused widespread flooding in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates; Bahrain, and Oman in mid-April 2024? No, that's not true: The compilation video contains clips of both real and computer-generated scenes, one from North America. Reverse image search results show several of these clips circulated before the record-breaking…